The head of the United States Secret Service admitted on Monday (September 16th) that before former President Trump went to play golf at a golf course in Florida and faced an assassination risk, the Secret Service agents did not conduct a thorough check of the perimeter of the golf course in advance because Trump’s outing was not on the pre-arranged schedule.
Acting director of the Secret Service, Ronald Rowe Jr., stated at a press conference on Monday that the agents did not conduct a rigorous search of the surroundings of the golf course beforehand because Trump’s golfing was not originally planned.
Rowe told reporters, “The president wasn’t supposed to go there in the first place. It was not on his official schedule.”
The head of the Secret Service also defended the agency’s current security measures. He said, “We had a security plan in place – and that security plan worked.”
Rowe mentioned that the Secret Service’s plan “was effective yesterday.” He pointed out that the Secret Service “early on” detected the threat, immediately evacuated Trump, and also took additional security measures, including deploying snipers.
However, Rowe did not clarify whether not being on the “official schedule” meant that the agents did not have enough time to inspect the surrounding areas of the golf course.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) stated that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh had set up a sniper hideout on the edge of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach and hid there for nearly 12 hours before Trump teed off on Sunday afternoon, without being noticed by anyone during that time.
According to criminal charges, Routh’s phone records show that he had been wandering near the bushes of the golf course from around 2 a.m. on Sunday until he was discovered and then fled in a vehicle.